Media access control for license-assisted access

ABSTRACT

Systems and/or methods of receiving communications at a receiving node that communicates with a transmitting node over a first communication channel and a second communication channel are disclosed. The method includes receiving, at the receiving node, a request-to-send message from the transmitting node over the first communication channel, the request-to-send message indicating that the transmitting node has data to be transmitted to the receiving node over the second communication channel, determining at the receiving node whether the second communication channel is available for reception of the data, in response to determining that the second communication channel is available for reception of the data, reserving the second communication channel for use by the transmitting node, and receiving the data from the transmitting node over the second communication channel.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a 35 U.S.C. § 371 national stage application of PCTInternational Application No. PCT/SE2015/051139, filed on Oct. 28, 2015,which itself claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.62/076,664 filed Nov. 7, 2014, the disclosure and content of both ofwhich are incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is directed to communications and, moreparticularly, to wireless communication methods, networks, and networknodes.

BACKGROUND

License-Assisted Access via LTE (LAA-LTE) has recently been proposed asa technology to enable the cooperation of 3rd-Generation PartnershipProject (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems on licensed carrierswith unlicensed communication systems, such as wireless local areanetwork (WLAN) communications systems.

IEEE 802.11 is a set of Media Access Control (MAC) and Physical layer(PHY) specifications for implementing WLAN computer communication in the2.4, 3.6, 5 and 60 GHz frequency bands. The specifications are createdand maintained by the IEEE Standards Committee IEEE 802. The baseversion of the standard was released in 1997 and has had subsequentamendments. The standard and amendments provide the basis for wirelessnetwork products using Wi-Fi.

A wireless local area network (WLAN) links two or more devices using awireless distribution method, and may also provide a connection throughan access point to another network. This gives users the ability to movearound within a local coverage area and still be connected to thenetwork. All devices that can connect to the WLAN are referred to asstations. Wireless stations fall into one of two categories: accesspoints and clients. Access points (AP), normally routers, are basestations for the wireless network. They transmit and receive signals atradio frequencies for wireless enabled devices. Wireless clients can bemobile devices, such as laptops, personal digital assistants, IP phonesand other smartphones, or fixed devices, such as desktops andworkstations, that are equipped with a wireless network interface. TheIEEE 802.11 standard has two basic modes of operation: an ad hoc modeand an infrastructure mode. In the ad hoc mode clients communicatedirectly peer-to-peer. In the infrastructure mode, clients communicatethrough an AP that serves as a bridge to other networks, such as theInternet or a Local Area Network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). Thefollowing sections summarize some IEEE 802.11 characteristics.

Wi-Fi systems based on the IEEE 802.11 standards have many aspects incommon with cellular systems in that they both provide orderly access toa shared wireless medium. One difference is the MAC protocol, which forcellular systems typically is scheduled, and for Wi-Fi iscontention-based. This means that a receiving station does not know inadvance what transmitting station it will receive data from and whattransmission format that is used. The IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol isdescribed in some more detail below.

The basic IEEE 802.11 MAC, the so-called Distributed CoordinationFunction (DCF), employs a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with CollisionAvoidance (CSMA/CA)-based protocol. The same protocol is applied by allstations, including the APs, i.e. in both downlink and uplinktransmissions. The standard also supports a Point Coordination Function(PCF) mode, in which APs have more control over the medium usage.Supporting the PCF mode is however optional, and rarely implemented.

As depicted in FIG. 1, a station using the DCF mode (User A) and wishingto transmit a frame first senses the medium. If the medium is sensed tobe idle for a certain minimum time, i.e. a so-called Distributed InterFrame Space (DIFS), the frame is transmitted. The DIFS is 50 μs in therelease IEEE 802.11b. If the medium is busy, as it is for user C in FIG.1, the station first waits until the medium is sensed idle (defer). Whenthis occurs, the station defers the transmission during a DIFS. As animmediate transmission after the expiration of the DIFS may lead tocollisions if more than one station is waiting to transmit data, eachtransmitting station sets a back-off timer to a random delay, andtransmits only when this back-off timer has expired instead oftransmitting immediately at the expiration of the DIFS. The back-offtimer is only activated when the medium is sensed idle. Whenever themedium is sensed busy, a deferral state is entered in which the back-offtimer is not activated. When the back-off timer expires, the frame istransmitted. If the frame is successfully received by a station, thereceiving station responds with an acknowledgement to the transmittingstation. The acknowledgement is sent a Short Inter Frame Space (SIFS)after the data frame is received. The SIFS is 10 μs in the release IEEE802.11b. Since a SIFS is shorter than a DIFS, no other station willaccess the medium during this time. If no acknowledgement is received bythe transmitting station, the transmitting station generates a newback-off timer value, and retransmits the frame when the new back-offtimer has expired. The reason for not receiving any acknowledgement maybe either because the transmitted frame is lost, with the result that noacknowledgement is returned, or because the acknowledgement itself islost. Even if the frame is successfully acknowledged, the transmittingstation must generate a back-off timer value and wait for it to expirebefore transmitting the next frame. To avoid congestion when collisionsoccur, back-off timer values are drawn from distributions with largerand larger expected values for every retransmission attempt. For the nthtransmission attempt, the back-off timer value is drawn from the uniformdistribution U[0,min((CWmin)*2n−1−1, CWmax)]. CWmin and CWmax areconstants with values that depend on the physical layer. For the releaseIEEE 802.11b the values are CWmin=31 and CWmax=1023. The back-off timervalue is measured in units of slot times, which for release IEEE 802.11bare 20 μs long.

In the Enhanced DCF mode, defined in the release IEEE 802.11e standard,service prioritization is introduced. This is done by using back-off anddeferral parameters that depend on a service type.

Since frames are transmitted after a DIFS when the medium is free, theminimum delay is equal to the transmission time plus a DIFS, which forrelease IEEE 802.11b is about 1 ms for a 1500 byte frame. The almostimmediate acknowledgement, with a transmission time of around 0.1 ms,means that the Round Trip Time (RTT) on layer 2 may be of the order of 1ms.

Because of the back-off and deferral times between transmissions, themedium is not fully used even at high traffic loads. The maximum linkutilization reached depends on the frame size, and varies between 50%for voice to 70-80% for data.

The approaches described in the Background section could be pursued, butare not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived orpursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approachesdescribed in the Background section are not prior art to the claims inthis application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion inthe Background section.

SUMMARY

Some embodiments provide a method of receiving communications at areceiving node that communicates with a transmitting node over a firstcommunication channel and a second communication channel. The methodincludes receiving (100), at the receiving node, a request-to-sendmessage from the transmitting node over the first communication channel,the request-to-send message indicating that the transmitting node hasdata to be transmitted to the receiving node over the secondcommunication channel, determining (102, 104) at the receiving nodewhether the second communication channel is available for reception ofthe data, in response to determining that the second communicationchannel is available for reception of the data, reserving (106) thesecond communication channel for use by the transmitting node, andreceiving (108) the data from the transmitting node over the secondcommunication channel.

A potential advantage of one or more embodiments of the inventiveconcepts presented herein is that communications between LTE nodes canbe offloaded to an unlicensed secondary communication channel whileavoiding interference on the secondary communication channel.

Reserving the second communication channel may include transmitting(202) a clear-to-send-to-self message over the second communicationchannel.

Transmissions on the first communication channel may synchronized bysubframes, and the OK-to-send signal instructing the transmitting nodeto send the data may be transmitted over the first communication channelin a next available subframe after transmitting theclear-to-send-to-self message over the second communication channel.

The method may further include in response to determining that thesecond communication channel is available for reception of the data, andtransmitting (204) an OK-to-send signal to the transmitting node overthe first communication channel instructing the transmitting node tosend the data.

The method may further include, after receiving the data from thetransmitting node, transmitting (302) an acknowledgement message fromthe receiving node to the transmitting node over the first communicationchannel.

The first communication channel may include licensed radio resources,and the second communication channel includes unlicensed radioresources.

The first communication channel may be a synchronous communicationchannel and the second communication channel may be an asynchronouscommunication channel.

The first communication channel may use a media access control (MAC)protocol in which transmission resources are scheduled, and the secondcommunication channel may use a MAC protocol that uses a distributedcontrol function.

Transmissions on the first communication channel may be synchronized bysubframes, and determining if the second communication channel isavailable for reception of the data may include checking (402) if thesecond communication channel is free of communications at a time justbefore a subframe boundary.

The transmitting node may include an eNB and the receiving node mayinclude a UE. In some embodiments, the transmitting node may include aUE and the receiving node may include an eNB.

Some embodiments provide a network node, including a processor circuit(1402, 1502), a transceiver (1420, 1520) coupled to the processorcircuit, and a memory circuit (1410, 1510) including computer readableprogram code (1412, 1512). The computer readable code is configured tocause the processor circuit to execute the operations of receiving (100)a request-to-send message from a transmitting node over a firstcommunication channel, the request-to-send message requesting indicatingthat the transmitting node has data to be transmitted to the receivingnode over a second communication channel, determining (102, 104) whetherthe second communication channel is available for reception of the data,in response to determining that the second communication channel isavailable for reception of the data, reserving (106) the secondcommunication channel for use by the transmitting node, and receiving(108) the data from the transmitting node over the second communicationchannel.

Some further embodiments provide a network node including a processorcircuit (1402, 1502), a memory circuit (1410, 1510) coupled to theprocessor and including computer readable program code (1412, 1512), atransceiver (1420, 1520) coupled to the processor circuit and configuredto receive (100) a request-to-send message from a transmitting node overa first communication channel, the request-to-send message requestingindicating that the transmitting node has data to be transmitted to thereceiving node over a second communication channel, and to receive (108)the data from the transmitting code over the second communicationchannel. The computer readable program code includes a determiningmodule (1416, 1516) for determining (102, 104) whether the secondcommunication channel is available for reception of the data in responseto the request-to-send message, and a reserving module (1418, 1518) for,in response to determining that the second communication channel isavailable for reception of the data, reserving (106) the secondcommunication channel for use by the transmitting node.

Further embodiments provide a method of transmitting communications froma transmitting node to a receiving node over a first communicationchannel and a second communication channel. The method includestransmitting (1502), from the transmitting node, a request-to-sendmessage over the first communication channel, the request-to-sendmessage indicating that the transmitting node has data to be transmittedto the receiving node over the second communication channel, receiving(1504) an indication from the receiving node that the secondcommunication channel is available for use by the transmitting node, andtransmitting (1506) the data from the transmitting node to the receivingnode over the second communication channel.

Receiving the indication from the receiving node that the secondcommunication channel is available for use by the transmitting node mayinclude receiving (1602) a clear-to-send-to-self message from thereceiving node over the second communication channel.

Receiving the indication from the receiving node that the secondcommunication channel is available for use by the transmitting node mayinclude receiving (1702) an OK-to-send message from the receiving nodeover the first communication channel.

The method may further include after transmitting the data from thetransmitting node, receiving (1802) an acknowledgement message from thereceiving node over the first communication channel.

The communication channel may include licensed radio resources, and thesecond communication channel may include unlicensed radio resources.

A network node according to further embodiments includes a processorcircuit (1402, 1502),

a transceiver (1420, 1520) coupled to the processor circuit, and amemory circuit (1410, 1510) including computer readable program code(1412, 1512). The computer readable program code is configured to causethe processor circuit to execute the operations of transmitting (1502),from the node, a request-to-send message to a receiving node over thefirst communication channel, the request-to-send message indicating thatthe node has data to be transmitted to the receiving node over thesecond communication channel, receiving (1504) an indication from thereceiving node that the second communication channel is available foruse by the node, and transmitting (1506) the data from the node to thereceiving node over the second communication channel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate certain non-limiting embodiment(s)of inventive concepts. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a timing diagram that illustrates media access controltechniques for managing a shared medium;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram that illustrates a problem of a hidden node inWLAN communications;

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating a system according to someembodiments;

FIG. 3B is a flow diagram illustrating general message flows in a systemaccording to some embodiments;

FIG. 4 is a timing/flow diagram illustrating examples of the timing ofmessages in systems according to some embodiments;

FIG. 5A is a block diagram illustrating a system according to someembodiments;

FIG. 5B is a flow diagram illustrating general message flows in a systemaccording to some embodiments;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are timing/flow diagrams illustrating examples of thetiming of messages in systems according to some embodiments;

FIGS. 7, 8 9 and 10 are flowcharts of operations and methods by areceiving node configured according to some embodiments;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a UE configured according to someembodiments;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating functional modules of a UEconfigured according to some embodiments;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a network node configured according tosome embodiments;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating functional modules of a networknode configured according to some embodiments; and

FIGS. 15, 16, 17, and 18 are flowcharts of operations and methods by atransmitting node configured according to some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Inventive concepts will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which examples of embodimentsof inventive concepts are shown. Inventive concepts may, however, beembodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limitedto the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments areprovided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and willfully convey the scope of present inventive concepts to those skilled inthe art. It should also be noted that these embodiments are not mutuallyexclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to bepresent/used in another embodiment.

Although various embodiments are disclosed herein in the context ofbeing performed by a UE and/or a network node, they are not limitedthereto and instead can be performed in any type of electroniccommunication device or system.

One problem that is unique to WLAN, compared to wired network, is thehidden node problem. Because the radio for each device in a WLAN networkhas only a limited coverage area, it is possible that a device withinthe network may not “hear” hidden devices that are transmitting to adevice within its coverage area. FIG. 2 below illustrates this problem.In the system of FIG. 2, both a first station 12 and a second station 14may communicate over a wireless LAN with an access point 10, which may,for example, be a wireless base station. However, the first and secondstations 12, 14 are outside each other's coverage area, which means thatthe first station cannot receive transmissions from the second station,and vice versa. Thus, the first station 12 and the second station 14 arehidden from one another. A collision will occur if the first station 12and the second station 14 transmit data to the access point 10 at thesame time.

A solution to this problem is use a RTS (Request To Send)-CTS (Clear ToSend) protocol for transmission. For example, referring to FIG. 2, whenthe first station 12 wants to transmit data to the access point 10, thefirst station 12 may transmit a RTS signal, and all stations within thecoverage area 12A of the first station 12 will avoid transmission untilthe data transmission (data+ACK) is finished. The transmission avoidancetime may be available as parameter within the RTS signal. Note, howeverthat the second station 14 is not within the coverage area 12A of thefirst station 12, and therefore will not receive the RTS signal.

After reception of the RTS, the access point 10 may transmit a CTS, andall devices within coverage area 10A of the access point 10 (includingthe second station 14) will avoid transmission until the datatransmission (data+ACK) is finished. This transmission avoidance timemay be available as parameter within the CTS signal.

The first station 12 then transmits data to the access point 10, and theaccess point 10 acknowledges the data by transmitting an ACK signal tothe first station 12.

License Assisted Access LTE (LAA-LTE)

LAA-LTE is an evolving standard under the umbrella of 3GPP. LAA-LTEproposes to use unlicensed bands (e.g. 2.4 GHz and 5.1 GHz) for LTE orLTE-like transmission, while co-existing with other wireless standards,such as WLAN IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth. The primary channel of LTE inthe licensed band may still be used, and the secondary channel(s) in theunlicensed band may be used to boost the throughput to the user.However, most of these unlicensed bands may be used by WLAN networks,which can significantly reduce the use of LTE in these bands. LTEtransmissions in an unlicensed band can also become impaired without aco-existence protocol that limits interference in the unlicensed band.In particular, in the 5 GHz unlicensed band, there are many channelsavailable that can be used for LTE transmission if a suitable protocolis used.

LTE and WLAN Compared

WLAN transmissions are asynchronous when compared to LTE, because WLANtransmissions can happen at any time the channel is free, while LTEtransmissions are aligned to the Transmission Time Interval (TTI) of 1ms. Also, the duration of WLAN transmissions is variable, while theduration of a transmission of LTE signals is in multiples of the TTI.

A feature than can be potentially useful in LAA-LTE, and that isdifferent from WLAN communications, is that the fact the licensedcarrier can be used to transmit control channel information (such asgrants), ACK signals, etc., while data may be offloaded to the secondarychannel when it is free. This can potentially allow more users to usethe licensed spectrum, which may reduce latency and/or result in fewerlink drops. In addition, the licensed channel may be more reliable thanthe unlicensed channel, and therefore may be more suitable for carryingcontrol channel information, ACKs, etc., This may avoid loss of controlsignal information due to collisions and interference in the unlicensedspectrum. Loss of control signal information can degrade the performanceof the system in terms of link drops, lost data, etc.

Listen-Before-Talk (LBT)

Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) is a protocol in which the wireless medium inthe desired channel is sensed for the presence of energy, such as due toWLAN transmissions, before the medium is used to transmit data. If themedium is found to be free, then the transmitter can start using themedium. This potentially avoids collision with other devices from thesame class or other (such as Bluetooth communications, or eveninterference from a microwave oven which operates on a frequency of 2.4GHz). The IEEE 802.11 standard uses CSMA/CA as mentioned above. Thisapproach, along with DCF (mentioned above), forms a powerful way ofavoiding collisions and increasing throughput. However, because ofalignment requirements, LBT is usually done at the transmitter side.

Even when LBT is used, the hidden node problem depicted in FIG. 2 canalso affect LAA-LTE if the medium is not sensed properly. Someembodiments described herein perform LBT at the receiver (instead of atthe transmitter as the name suggests), and inform the transmitter in areasonably short time given LTE constraints that the medium is availablefor transmission.

In the unlicensed spectrum used in LAA-LTE, interference to theunlicensed carrier will likely originate from WLAN communications. AsLTE transmission is synchronous, it will be difficult to guarantee aninterference free environment on the receiver side when there areinterfering WLAN devices in the neighborhood. Furthermore, the effect ofinterference is at the receiver, but most existing solutions listen tothe medium at the transmitter assuming the interfering signal isreceived at the transmitter will affect the receiver equally. Thisassumption is may not be true unless the transmitter and receiver areco-located, which is unusual.

The main reason for LBT to be performed at the transmitter end isbecause of the delay in LTE between the time a decision totransmit/receive is made by the eNB (i.e., the base station) and thetime of the actual on-air transmission. By performing LBT at the eNBside, this delay is to some extent avoided, but may lead to the hiddennode problem described above.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may overcome one or more of thepotential problems explained above with existing approaches byperforming LBT on the secondary channel at the receiver side, andcommunicating the availability of the secondary channel to thetransmitter.

In particular embodiments, a transmitting node may send arequest-to-send message to a receiving node over a primary communicationchannel, such as a licensed LTE channel. The request-to-send messagerequests permission to transmit data to the receiving node over asecondary communication channel, such as an unlicensed WLAN channel.

Using receiver-side LBT, the receiving node determines if the secondarycommunication channel is available for reception of the data, and inresponse to determining that the secondary communication channel isavailable, transmits a clear-to-send-to-self message over the secondarycommunication channel. The transmitting node then transmits the data tothe receiving node over the secondary communication channel.

Another problem when considering how to make LTE cooperate withasynchronous communications channels is that, since LTE transmissionscannot happen before a TTI boundary, sensing of the secondary channelmedium is not very useful if it is done at beginning of the TTI and thesecondary channel is reserved (e.g. via DCF) for the remainder of theTTI. This will reduce the spectrum availability, since the secondarychannel will be not used for the most part. Therefore, according to someembodiments, the secondary channel may be sensed just before thetransmission to reduce wastage of spectrum.

Operations and methods according to some embodiments are illustrated inFIGS. 3A and 3B. FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating an operatingenvironment including an eNodeB (or eNB) base station 110 thatcommunicates with a UE 120. The eNB 110 is configured to communicatewith the UE 120 on a primary channel 132 that may utilize a licensedcarrier frequency and a secondary channel 134 that may utilize anunlicensed carrier frequency. For example, the primary channel 132 mayutilize LTE standards, while the secondary channel 134 may utilize WLANstandards. The WLAN environment may include a first node 142 that isoutside the range of, and therefore hidden from, the eNB 110, and asecond node 144 that is outside the range of, and therefore hidden from,the UE 120. The first and second nodes 142, 144 may include basestations and/or mobile stations.

The eNB 110 may be considered to comprise a primary cell (PCell) thatcommunicates using the primary channel on the licensed carrier and asecondary cell (SCell) that communicates using the secondary channel onthe unlicensed carrier. For example, the PCell may implement LTEfunctionality using licensed carriers, while the SCell implements WiFifunctionality using unlicensed carriers. However, the inventive conceptsare not limited to LTE and WiFi systems.

FIG. 3B is a flow diagram illustrating general message flows between theUE 120, the SCell of the eNB 110, the PCell of the eNB 110, and thefirst and second WLAN nodes 142, 144 according to some embodiments.Referring to FIGS. 3A and 3B, some embodiments operate as follows:

1. First, a ready-to-transmit-data signal 22 is sent from the PCell ofthe eNB 110 to the UE 120 in an first subframe sf of the primary systemto indicate that the eNB 110 has data to send to the UE 120. Theready-to-transmit-data signal 22 may be a newly defined signal in LTE,or it may be an extension of an existing LTE signal. In someembodiments, the ready-to-transmit-data signal 22 may be sent via acontrol channel on the primary channel 132.

2. The UE 120 performs a Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) operation to determineif the secondary channel is available for reception of data. The LBToperation may be performed just before a sub-frame boundary on theprimary channel 132 so that the status of the secondary channel can becommunicated to the eNB 110 in the next opportunity via the primarychannel 132.

3. When the secondary channel is free for reception, the UE 120 willimmediately transmit a CTS-to-self message 24 over the secondarychannel. The CTS-to-self message 24 will be received by the SCell of theeNB 110 as well as by the node 142 that is hidden from the SCell of theeNB 110. The UE 120 may optionally transmit a signal 25 via a controlchannel on the primary channel to the eNB 110 in the next availablesubframe (sf+n) to inform the eNB 110 that the secondary channel isavailable to be used. In some embodiments, the signal 25 may not beused, as the eNB 110 may interpret the CTS-to-self message 24 as anindication that the secondary channel is available. However, in someembodiments, the eNB 110 may not have an active receiver listening tothe secondary channel and thus may not receive the CTS-to-self message.

In addition, the eNB 110 may not receive the CTS-to-self message 24 dueto the relative unreliability of the unlicensed spectrum that carriesthe secondary channel. For example, there can be a case in which the UE120 experiences a clean secondary channel, but the eNB 110 is beingdisturbed by interference from a hidden node, such that the CTS-to-selfmessage transmitted by the UE 120 is not received by the eNB 110.

The CTS-to-self message is a protection mechanism that may be used in aWLAN system to protect transmitted frames from collision. When aCTS-to-self message is transmitted on a shared channel by a wirelessdevice, the other devices using the shared channel may refrain fromtransmitting data on the shared channel for a defined period of time toallow the wireless device sufficient time to send data. Accordingly,when the UE 120 transmits the CTS-to-self message, other nodes using thesecondary channel may wait to transmit, insuring that the secondarychannel is (at least temporarily) available for the eNB 110 to send datato the UE 120.

4. After receiving the control signal 25 or the CTS-to-self message 24from the UE 120, the eNB transmits downlink (DL) data 26 to the UE 120over the secondary channel 134. As the air interface is cleared in thereceiver side, and acknowledgment of data is done on the licensedcarrier, there may be no need to perform the LBT function on thetransmitter side. However, LBT may optionally be performed on thetransmitter side in order to avoid disturbance to neighboring devices.

As noted above, after receiving the ready-to-transmit-data signal 22from the transmitting node, the receiving node may wait to perform theLBT function until just before a subframe boundary in order to utilizethe secondary channel more efficiently. Accordingly, a shift of timingbetween the primary channel and the secondary channel may be implementedso that the delay between the LBT status and the actual transmission bythe transmitting node is reduced.

According to some embodiments, transmission over the secondary channelmay be performed more efficiently, as the interference is cleared onlyon the receiver side where the interference is actually experiencedrather than on the transmitter side. This approach may address problemsassociated with obtaining access to an unlicensed spectrum that isshared with other devices, such as WLAN devices, that are due tosynchronous transmission in the LTE system.

FIG. 4 is a timing/flow diagram illustrating an example of the timing ofmessages between the UE 120, the SCell of the eNB 110, and the PCell ofthe eNB 110 of FIG. 3A according to some embodiments. In particular,FIG. 4 illustrates an example of securing a secondary channel for datatransmission on the downlink (i.e. the eNB to UE direction).

First, an eNB 110 that has data to transmit to UE 110 will send aready-to-transmit-data signal 32 at the beginning of a subframe (e.g.,subframe 0) to the UE 120 using a control channel on the primary channel132. The eNB can transmit this indication by, for example, an extensionof a current uplink grant signal or a new downlink scheduling request.

After the UE 120 receives the ready-to-transmit-data signal 32, the UE120 may perform an LBT operation 36 in the subsequent subframe (e.g., SF1). That is, the UE 120 may monitor the secondary channel 134 todetermine if it is available. In this example, the result is not OK, asa hidden node 142 in the SCell is transmitting data signals 34 thatwould interfere with the UE's receiver.

Accordingly, in this example, the UE 120 transmits a NOK signal via theprimary channel 132 to indicate that the secondary channel is occupied,as seen from the UE 120.

In the next subframe (SF 2), the UE 120 tries to perform LBT again, andthis time the result is OK as no interfering transmitter is seen by theUE 120.

The UE 120 then transmits an OK-to-send signal 39 via the primarychannel 132 to indicate that the secondary channel is free, as seen fromthe UE 120. The UE 120 also sends a Wi-Fi CTS-to-self signal 38 in orderto reserve the secondary channel.

Next, the eNB 110 transmits downlink (DL) data 40 on the secondarychannel 134. The probability of successful transmission will beincreased as the UE 120 has already reserved the secondary channel foruse by the eNB 110 via the CTS-to-self signal 38.

Before the eNB 110 has finalized its transmission, the eNB 110 canindicate to the UE 110 that there are more data to transmit to the UE120 on the secondary channel via a ready-to-transmit-data signal 42 thatis the same as or similar to the ready-to-transmit-data signal 32described above.

In response to the ready-to-transmit-data signal 32, the UE 110 againperforms LBT on the secondary channel in the coming subframe. In thiscase the result is OK as no interfering transmitter is seen by the UE120.

The UE 120 then transmits an OK-to-send signal 44 via the primarychannel 132 to indicate that the secondary channel is free, as seen fromUE 120. The UE 120 also sends a Wi-Fi CTS-to-self signal 45 in order toreserve the secondary channel for use by the eNB 110. The eNB 110 thentransmits the data 46 to the UE 120 on the secondary channel 134.

Operations and methods according to some embodiments in which LBT isperformed prior to transmission of data from the UE 120 to the eNB 110through the SCell are illustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B.

FIG. 5B is a flow diagram illustrating general message flows between theUE 120, the SCell of the eNB 110, the PCell of the eNB 110, and thefirst and second WLAN nodes 142, 144, shown in FIG. 5A. Referring toFIGS. 5A and 5B, some embodiments operate as follows:

1. First, a ready-to-transmit-data signal 52 is sent from the UE 120 tothe eNB 110 over the primary channel 132 to indicate that the UE 120 hasdata to send to the eNB 110.

2. The eNB 110 performs a Listen-Before-Talk (LBT) operation on thesecondary channel to determine if the secondary channel is available forreception of data. The LBT operation may be performed just before asub-frame boundary so that the status of the secondary channel can becommunicated to the UE 120 in the next opportunity via the primarychannel.

3. If the secondary channel is free for reception, the eNB 110 willtransmit a CTS-to-self message 55 over the secondary channel. The eNB110 may optionally transmit a signal 54 via a control channel of theprimary channel to the UE 120 in the next available subframe to informthe UE 120 that the secondary channel is available to be used. In someembodiments, the signal 54 may not be used, as the UE 120 may interpretthe CTS-to-self message 55 as an indication that the secondary channelis available. However, in some embodiments, the UE 120 may not have anactive receiver listening to the secondary channel and thus may notreceive the CTS-to-self message.

In addition, the UE 120 may not receive the CTS-to-self message 55 dueto the relative unreliability of the unlicensed spectrum that carriesthe secondary channel. For example, there can be a case in which the eNB110 experiences a clean secondary channel, but the UE 120 is beingdisturbed by interference from a hidden node, such that the CTS-to-selfmessage transmitted by the eNB 110 is not received by the UE 120.

4. After receiving the control signal 54 or the CTS-to-self message 55from the eNB 110, the UE 110 transmits data 56 to the eNB 110 over thesecondary channel 134. As the air interface is cleared in the receiverside, and acknowledgment of data is sent via the primary channel, theremay be no need to perform the LBT function on the transmitter side.However, LBT may optionally be performed on the transmitter side inorder to avoid eventual disturbance to neighboring devices.

FIG. 6A is a timing/flow diagram illustrating an example of the timingof messages between the UE 120, the SCell of the eNB 110, and the PCellof the eNB 110 of FIG. 5A according to some embodiments. In particular,FIG. 6A illustrates an example of using a secondary channel for datatransmission on the uplink (i.e., the UE to eNB direction).

Referring to FIG. 6A, a UE 120 that has data to transmit to the eNB 110sends a ready-to-transmit-data signal 62 to the eNB 110 using a controlchannel on the primary channel 132. The UE 120 can transmit thisindication using, for example, an existing control signal or a new ULscheduling request.

After the eNB 110 receives the ready-to-transmit-data signal 62 on theprimary channel, the eNB 110 performs LBT in the coming subframe (e.g.,SF 0). In this example, however, the result is not OK as a node that ishidden from the UE 120 is transmitting and interferes with the receiverof the eNB 110.

The eNB 110 transmits a NOK signal via the primary channel to indicatethat the secondary channel is occupied, as seen from the eNB 110.

In the next subframe, the eNB 110 again tries to perform LBT on thesecondary channel, and this time the result is OK as no interferingtransmitter is seen by the eNB 110.

The eNB 110 then transmits an OK-to-send signal 63 via the primarychannel 132 to indicate that secondary channel is free, seen from eNB110.

In addition, a Wi-Fi CTS-to-self signal 64 is sent by the eNB 110 inorder to reserve the secondary channel 134.

The UE 120 then transmits data 65 on the secondary channel. Theprobability of successful transmission will be increased, as the eNB 110already reserved the secondary channel 134 via the CTS-to-self signal64.

Before the UE 120 has completed its transmission, it can indicate to theeNB 110 that there are more data to transmit to the eNB 110 over thesecondary channel using another ready-to-send-data signal 66.

The eNB 110 then tries to perform LBT in the next subframe after thedata transmission 65 is complete (SF 7). In this case the result is OK,as no interfering transmitter is seen by eNB 110.

The eNB 110 then transmits an OK-to-send signal 68 via the primarychannel 132 to indicate that the secondary channel 134 is free, as seenfrom eNB 110.

The eNB 110 then sends a Wi-Fi CTS-to-self signal 70 in order to reservethe secondary channel 1343 for data transmission by the UE 120, afterwhich the UE 120 then transmits data 72 on the secondary channel 134.

FIG. 6B illustrates an example of how time shift between the primary(licensed) channel and the secondary (unlicensed) channel can improvethe usage of downlink resource. In particular, as illustrated in FIG.6B, the subframe boundaries of the primary and secondary systems may notbe aligned.

The steps shown in FIG. 6B are similar to the steps in FIG. 4, however,as shown in FIG. 6B, after receiving the ready-to-send-data signal 72,the UE 120 may wait until just before the end of the next PCell subframeto perform the LBT function, so that the SCell can begin transmission ofdata 74 as soon as practicable after the LBT function is performed,i.e., at the beginning of the next SCell subframe. As there is a timeshift between the subframes in the PCell and the SCell, the eNB 110 cantransmit data much earlier and thereby potentially save one subframebetween LBT and data transmission compared to the example illustrated inFIG. 4. Similar techniques can be applied to uplink data transmission.

Continuing with the description of FIG. 6B, during the transmission ofthe data 74, the PCell of the eNB 110 may send anotherready-to-send-data signal 76 to the UE 120. The UE 120 may perform anLBT operation during the next PCell subframe after the end of the datatransmission to determine if the secondary channel 134 is available. Ifso, then the UE 120 can send an OK-to-send signal to the eNB 110 at thebeginning of the next PCell subframe. The SCell of the eNB 110 can thenbegin transmitting the data 78 at the beginning of the next SCellsubframe.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating operations of systems/methodsaccording to some embodiments. In particular, FIG. 7 illustrates amethod of receiving communications at a receiving node (which may, forexample, be a UE or an eNB) that communicates with a transmitting node(e.g, an eNB or a UE) over a first communication channel and a secondcommunication channel. The method includes receiving, at the receivingnode, a request-to-send-data message from the transmitting node over thefirst communication channel (block 100). The request-to-send-datamessage informs the receiving node that the transmitting node has datato be transmitted to the receiving node.

The method further includes determining at the receiving node whetherthe second communication channel is available for reception of the data(block 102). If the second communication channel is available forreception of the data (block 104), the receiving node reserves thesecond communication channel for use by the transmitting node (block106), and receives the data from the transmitting node over the secondcommunication channel (108). If it is determined at block 104 that thesecond communication channel is not available for reception of the data,the operations may return to block 102 and check again to see if thesecond communication channel is available for reception of the data.

Referring to FIG. 8, reserving the second communication channel mayinclude transmitting a clear-to-send-to-self message over the secondcommunication channel (block 202). The receiving node may optionallytransmit an OK-to-send message to the transmitting node over the firstcommunication channel (block 204). The OK-to-send message may betransmitted over the first communication channel in a next availablesubframe after transmitting the clear-to-send-to-self message over thesecond communication channel.

Referring to FIG. 9, the method may further include, after receiving thedata from the transmitting node, transmitting an acknowledgement messagefrom the receiving node to the transmitting node over the firstcommunication channel (block 302).

Referring to FIG. 10, determining if the second communication channel isavailable for reception of the data may include checking if the secondcommunication channel is free of communications at a time just before asubframe boundary (block 402).

Example User Equipment and Network Node

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a UE 1400, for use in a telecommunicationssystem, that is configured to perform operations according to one ormore embodiments disclosed herein. The UE 1400 includes a transceiver1420, a processor circuit 1402, and a memory circuit 1410 containingcomputer readable program code 1412. The UE 1400 may further include adisplay 1430, a user input interface 1440, and a speaker 1450.

The transceiver 1420 is configured to communicate with a network node,the example of which is an eNB, through a wireless air interface usingone or more of the radio access technologies disclosed herein. Theprocessor circuit 1402 may include one or more data processing circuits,such as a general purpose and/or special purpose processor, e.g.,microprocessor and/or digital signal processor. The processor circuit1402 is configured to execute the computer readable program code 1412 inthe memory circuit 1410 to perform at least some of the operationsdescribed herein as being performed by a UE.

FIG. 12 illustrates the computer readable program code 1412 in moredetail. In particular, the computer readable program code 1412 includesa determining module 1416 for determining whether the secondcommunication channel is available for reception of the data in responseto the request-to-send message, and a reserving module 1418 for, inresponse to determining that the second communication channel isavailable for reception of the data, reserving the second communicationchannel for use by a transmitting node.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a network node 1500, for use in atelecommunications system, that is configured according to one or moreembodiments disclosed herein for an eNB, radio network node, or othernetwork node. The network node 1500 can include a transceiver 1530, anetwork interface 1520, a processor circuit 1502, and a memory circuit1510 containing computer readable program code 1512.

The transceiver 1530 is configured to communicate with the UE 1400 usingone or more of the radio access technologies disclosed herein, when thenetwork node 1500 is a radio network node. The processor circuit 1502may include one or more data processing circuits, such as a generalpurpose and/or special purpose processor, e.g., microprocessor and/ordigital signal processor, that may be collocated or distributed acrossone or more networks. The processor circuit 1502 is configured toexecute the computer readable program code 1512 in the memory 1510 toperform at least some of the operations and methods of described hereinas being performed by a network node. The network interface 1520communicates with other network nodes and/or a core network.

FIG. 14 illustrates the computer readable program code 1512 in moredetail. In particular, the computer readable program code 1512 includesa determining module 1516 for determining whether the secondcommunication channel is available for reception of the data in responseto the request-to-send message, and a reserving module 1518 for, inresponse to determining that the second communication channel isavailable for reception of the data, reserving the second communicationchannel for use by a transmitting node.

FIG. 15 illustrates systems/methods for transmitting communications froma transmitting node to a receiving node over a first communicationchannel and a second communication channel. The method includestransmitting, from the transmitting node, a request-to-send message overthe first communication channel (block 1502). The request-to-sendmessage indicates that the transmitting node has data to be transmittedto the receiving node over the second communication channel. Thetransmitting node then receives an indication from the receiving nodethat the second communication channel is available for use by thetransmitting node (block 1504). In response to receiving the indicationthat the second communication channel is available for use, thetransmitting node transmits the data to the receiving node over thesecond communication channel (block 1506).

Referring to FIG. 16, in some embodiments, receiving the indication fromthe receiving node that the second communication channel is availablefor use by the transmitting node comprises receiving aclear-to-send-to-self message from the receiving node over the secondcommunication channel (block 1602).

Referring to FIG. 17, in some embodiments, receiving the indication fromthe receiving node that the second communication channel is availablefor use by the transmitting node comprises receiving an OK-to-sendmessage from the receiving node over the first communication channel(block 1702).

Referring to FIG. 18, the method may further include, after transmittingthe data from the transmitting node, receiving an acknowledgementmessage from the receiving node over the first communication channel(block 1802).

Abbreviations

-   LTE Long-Term Evolution-   LAA-LTE Licensed-Assisted Access LTE-   LBT Listen Before Talk-   UE User Equipment-   eNB Enhanced Node conforming to 3GPP LTE standards (eNodeB)-   UE User Equipment—usually and LTE client device-   WLAN Wireless Local Area Network conforming to IEEE 802.11a/g/n spec-   LBT Listen-Before-Talk; a generic term for sensing wireless medium-   RTS Request to Send-   CTS Clear to Send-   DCF Distributed Co-ordination Function-   UL Uplink-   DL Downlink

Further Definitions and Embodiments

In the above-description of various embodiments of present inventiveconcepts, it is to be understood that the terminology used herein is forthe purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is notintended to be limiting of present inventive concepts. Unless otherwisedefined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) usedherein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinaryskill in the art to which present inventive concepts belongs. It will befurther understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of this specification andthe relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overlyformal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

When an element is referred to as being “connected”, “coupled”,“responsive”, or variants thereof to another element, it can be directlyconnected, coupled, or responsive to the other element or interveningelements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to asbeing “directly connected”, “directly coupled”, “directly responsive”,or variants thereof to another element, there are no interveningelements present. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.Furthermore, “coupled”, “connected”, “responsive”, or variants thereofas used herein may include wirelessly coupled, connected, or responsive.As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. Well-known functions or constructions may not be described indetail for brevity and/or clarity. The term “and/or” includes any andall combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

It will be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc.may be used herein to describe various elements/operations, theseelements/operations should not be limited by these terms. These termsare only used to distinguish one element/operation from anotherelement/operation. Thus a first element/operation in some embodimentscould be termed a second element/operation in other embodiments withoutdeparting from the teachings of present inventive concepts. The samereference numerals or the same reference designators denote the same orsimilar elements throughout the specification.

As used herein, the terms “comprise”, “comprising”, “comprises”,“include”, “including”, “includes”, “have”, “has”, “having”, or variantsthereof are open-ended, and include one or more stated features,integers, elements, steps, components or functions but does not precludethe presence or addition of one or more other features, integers,elements, steps, components, functions or groups thereof. Furthermore,as used herein, the common abbreviation “e.g.”, which derives from theLatin phrase “exempli gratia,” may be used to introduce or specify ageneral example or examples of a previously mentioned item, and is notintended to be limiting of such item. The common abbreviation “i.e.”,which derives from the Latin phrase “id est,” may be used to specify aparticular item from a more general recitation.

Example embodiments are described herein with reference to blockdiagrams and/or flowchart illustrations of computer-implemented methods,apparatus (systems and/or devices) and/or computer program products. Itis understood that a block of the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/orflowchart illustrations, can be implemented by computer programinstructions that are performed by one or more computer circuits. Thesecomputer program instructions may be provided to a processor circuit ofa general purpose computer circuit, special purpose computer circuit,and/or other programmable data processing circuit to produce a machine,such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of thecomputer and/or other programmable data processing apparatus, transformand control transistors, values stored in memory locations, and otherhardware components within such circuitry to implement thefunctions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/or flowchart block orblocks, and thereby create means (functionality) and/or structure forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/orflowchart block(s).

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a tangiblecomputer-readable medium that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/orflowchart block or blocks. Accordingly, embodiments of present inventiveconcepts may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (includingfirmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) that runs on a processorsuch as a digital signal processor, which may collectively be referredto as “circuitry,” “a module” or variants thereof.

It should also be noted that in some alternate implementations, thefunctions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted inthe flowcharts. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in factbe executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes beexecuted in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/actsinvolved. Moreover, the functionality of a given block of the flowchartsand/or block diagrams may be separated into multiple blocks and/or thefunctionality of two or more blocks of the flowcharts and/or blockdiagrams may be at least partially integrated. Finally, other blocks maybe added/inserted between the blocks that are illustrated, and/orblocks/operations may be omitted without departing from the scope ofinventive concepts. Moreover, although some of the diagrams includearrows on communication paths to show a primary direction ofcommunication, it is to be understood that communication may occur inthe opposite direction to the depicted arrows.

Many variations and modifications can be made to the embodiments withoutsubstantially departing from the principles of the present inventiveconcepts. All such variations and modifications are intended to beincluded herein within the scope of present inventive concepts.Accordingly, the above disclosed subject matter is to be consideredillustrative, and not restrictive, and the appended examples ofembodiments are intended to cover all such modifications, enhancements,and other embodiments, which fall within the spirit and scope of presentinventive concepts. Thus, to the maximum extent allowed by law, thescope of present inventive concepts are to be determined by the broadestpermissible interpretation of the present disclosure, and shall not berestricted or limited by the foregoing detailed description.

EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1

A method of receiving communications at a receiving node thatcommunicates with a transmitting node over a first communication channeland a second communication channel, the method comprising:

receiving (100), at the receiving node, a request-to-send message fromthe transmitting node over the first communication channel, therequest-to-send message indicating that the transmitting node has datato be transmitted to the receiving node over the second communicationchannel;

determining (102, 104) at the receiving node whether the secondcommunication channel is available for reception of the data;

in response to determining that the second communication channel isavailable for reception of the data, reserving (106) the secondcommunication channel for use by the transmitting node; and receiving(108) the data from the transmitting node over the second communicationchannel.

Embodiment 2

The method of embodiment 1, wherein reserving the second communicationchannel comprises transmitting (202) a clear-to-send-to-self messageover the second communication channel.

Embodiment 3

The method of embodiment 2, wherein transmissions on the firstcommunication channel are synchronized by frames and subframes, andwherein the OK-to-send signal instructing the transmitting node to sendthe data is transmitted over the first communication channel in a nextavailable subframe after transmitting the clear-to-send-to-self messageover the second communication channel.

Embodiment 4

The method of any preceding embodiment, further comprising:

in response to determining that the second communication channel isavailable for reception of the data, transmitting (204) an OK-to-sendsignal to the transmitting node over the first communication channelinstructing the transmitting node to send the data.

Embodiment 5

The method of any preceding embodiment, further comprising:

after receiving the data from the transmitting node, transmitting (302)an acknowledgement message from the receiving node to the transmittingnode over the first communication channel.

Embodiment 6

The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the first communicationchannel comprises licensed radio resources, and the second communicationchannel comprises unlicensed radio resources.

Embodiment 7

The method of embodiment 6, wherein the first communication channelcomprises a synchronous communication channel and the secondcommunication channel comprises an asynchronous communication channel.

Embodiment 8

The method of embodiment 7, wherein the first communication channel usesa media access control (MAC) protocol in which transmission resourcesare scheduled, and the second communication channel uses a MAC protocolthat uses a distributed control function.

Embodiment 9

The method of embodiment 7, wherein transmissions on the firstcommunication channel are synchronized by frames and subframes, andwherein determining if the second communication channel is available forreception of the data comprises checking (402) if the secondcommunication channel is free of communications at a time just before asubframe boundary.

Embodiment 10

The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the transmitting nodecomprises an eNB and the receiving node comprises a UE.

Embodiment 11

The method of any of embodiments 1 to 9, wherein the transmitting nodecomprises a UE and the receiving node comprises an eNB.

Embodiment 12

A node, comprising:

a processor circuit (1402, 1502);

a transceiver (1420, 1520) coupled to the processor circuit; and

a memory circuit (1410, 1510) comprising computer readable program code(1412, 1512) that is configured to cause the processor circuit toexecute the operations of:

receiving (100) a request-to-send message from a transmitting node overa first communication channel, the request-to-send message requestingindicating that the transmitting node has data to be transmitted to thereceiving node over a second communication channel;

determining (102, 104) whether the second communication channel isavailable for reception of the data;

in response to determining that the second communication channel isavailable for reception of the data, reserving (106) the secondcommunication channel for use by the transmitting node; and

receiving (108) the data from the transmitting node over the secondcommunication channel.

Embodiment 13

A node, comprising:

a processor circuit (1402, 1502);

a memory circuit (1410, 1510) coupled to the processor and comprisingcomputer readable program code (1412, 1512);

a transceiver (1420, 1520) coupled to the processor circuit andconfigured to receive (100) a request-to-send message from atransmitting node over a first communication channel, therequest-to-send message requesting indicating that the transmitting nodehas data to be transmitted to the receiving node over a secondcommunication channel, and to receive (108) the data from thetransmitting code over the second communication channel;

wherein the computer readable program code comprises:

a determining module (1416, 1516) for determining (102, 104) whether thesecond communication channel is available for reception of the data inresponse to the request-to-send message; and

a reserving module (1418, 1518) for, in response to determining that thesecond communication channel is available for reception of the data,reserving (106) the second communication channel for use by thetransmitting node.

Embodiment 14

A method of transmitting communications from a transmitting node to areceiving node over a first communication channel and a secondcommunication channel, the method comprising:

transmitting (1502), from the transmitting node, a request-to-sendmessage over the first communication channel, the request-to-sendmessage indicating that the transmitting node has data to be transmittedto the receiving node over the second communication channel;

receiving (1504) an indication from the receiving node that the secondcommunication channel is available for use by the transmitting node; and

transmitting (1506) the data from the transmitting node to the receivingnode over the second communication channel.

Embodiment 15

The method of embodiment 14, wherein receiving the indication from thereceiving node that the second communication channel is available foruse by the transmitting node comprises receiving (1602) aclear-to-send-to-self message from the receiving node over the secondcommunication channel.

Embodiment 16

The method of embodiment 14, wherein receiving the indication from thereceiving node that the second communication channel is available foruse by the transmitting node comprises receiving (1702) an OK-to-sendmessage from the receiving node over the first communication channel.

Embodiment 17

The method of any of embodiments 14 to 16, further comprising:

after transmitting the data from the transmitting node, receiving (1802)an acknowledgement message from the receiving node over the firstcommunication channel.

Embodiment 18

The method of any of embodiments 14 to 17, wherein the firstcommunication channel comprises licensed radio resources, and the secondcommunication channel comprises unlicensed radio resources.

Embodiment 19

The method of any of embodiments 14 to 18, wherein the transmitting nodecomprises an eNB and the receiving node comprises a UE.

Embodiment 20

The method of any of embodiments 14 to 18, wherein the transmitting nodecomprises a UE and the receiving node comprises an eNB.

Embodiment 21

A node, comprising:

a processor circuit (1402, 1502);

a transceiver (1420, 1520) coupled to the processor circuit; and

a memory circuit (1410, 1510) comprising computer readable program code(1412, 1512) that is configured to cause the processor circuit toexecute the operations of:

transmitting (1502), from the node, a request-to-send message to areceiving node over the first communication channel, the request-to-sendmessage indicating that the node has data to be transmitted to thereceiving node over the second communication channel;

receiving (1504) an indication from the receiving node that the secondcommunication channel is available for use by the node; and

transmitting (1506) the data from the node to the receiving node overthe second communication channel.

Embodiment 22

A network node (1400, 1500) configured to perform the method of any ofembodiments 1-11.

Embodiment 23

A network node (1400, 1500) configured to perform the method of any ofembodiments 14-20.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of receiving communications at areceiving node that communicates with a transmitting node over a firstcommunication channel and a second communication channel, the methodcomprising: receiving, at the receiving node, a request-to-send messagefrom the transmitting node over the first communication channel, therequest-to-send message indicating that the transmitting node has datato be transmitted to the receiving node over the second communicationchannel; determining, at the receiving node, whether the secondcommunication channel is available for reception of the data in responseto the request-to-send message, wherein determining the availability ofthe second communication channel for the reception of the data comprisesperforming a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation, at a time just before asubframe boundary on the first communication channel, if the secondcommunication channel is free of communications; in response todetermining that the second communication channel is available for thereception of the data, reserving the second communication channel foruse by the transmitting node; and receiving, at the receiving node, thedata from the transmitting node over the second communication channel.2. The method of claim 1, wherein reserving the second communicationchannel comprises transmitting a clear-to-send-to-self message over thesecond communication channel.
 3. The method of claim 2, whereintransmissions on the first communication channel are synchronized byframes and subframes, and wherein the method further comprisestransmitting an OK-to-send signal, instructing the transmitting node tosend the data, over the first communication channel in a next availablesubframe after transmitting the clear-to-send-to-self message over thesecond communication channel.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: in response to determining that the second communicationchannel is available for the reception of the data, transmitting anOK-to-send signal to the transmitting node over the first communicationchannel instructing the transmitting node to send the data.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: after receiving the data from thetransmitting node, transmitting an acknowledgement message from thereceiving node to the transmitting node over the first communicationchannel.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communicationchannel comprises licensed radio resources, and the second communicationchannel comprises unlicensed radio resources.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein the first communication channel comprises a synchronouscommunication channel and the second communication channel comprises anasynchronous communication channel.
 8. The method of claim 7, whereinthe first communication channel uses a media access control (MAC)protocol in which transmission resources are scheduled, and the secondcommunication channel uses a MAC protocol that uses a distributedcontrol function.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein transmissions on thefirst communication channel are synchronized by frames and subframes.10. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting node comprises aneNodeB (eNB) and the receiving node comprises a user equipment (UE). 11.The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting node comprises a userequipment (UE) and the receiving node comprises an eNodeB (eNB).
 12. Anetwork node configured to perform the method of claim
 1. 13. A node,comprising: a processor circuit; a transceiver coupled to the processorcircuit; and a memory circuit comprising computer readable program codethat is configured to cause the processor circuit to execute theoperations of: receiving a request-to-send message from a transmittingnode over a first communication channel, the request-to-send messageindicating that the transmitting node has data to be transmitted to thenode over a second communication channel; determining whether the secondcommunication channel is available for reception of the data in responseto the request-to-send message, wherein determining the availability ofthe second communication channel for the reception of the data comprisesperforming a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation, at a time just before asubframe boundary on the first communication channel, if the secondcommunication channel is free of communications; in response todetermining that the second communication channel is available for thereception of the data, reserving the second communication channel foruse by the transmitting node; and receiving the data from thetransmitting node over the second communication channel.
 14. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereoncomputer-executable instructions, which when executed by a processor,cause the processor to perform or control performance of operationscomprising: receiving a request-to-send message from a transmitting nodeover a first communication channel, the request-to-send messageindicating that the transmitting node has data to be transmitted to areceiving node over a second communication channel; determining whetherthe second communication channel is available for reception of the datain response to the request-to-send message, wherein determining theavailability of the second communication channel for the reception ofthe data comprises performing a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation, at atime just before a subframe boundary on the first communication channel,if the second communication channel is free of communications; inresponse to determining that the second communication channel isavailable for the reception of the data, reserving the secondcommunication channel for use by the transmitting node; and receivingthe data from the transmitting node over the second communicationchannel.
 15. A method of transmitting communications from a transmittingnode to a receiving node over a first communication channel and a secondcommunication channel, the method comprising: transmitting, from thetransmitting node, a request-to-send message over the firstcommunication channel, the request-to-send message indicating that thetransmitting node has data to be transmitted to the receiving node overthe second communication channel; receiving an indication from thereceiving node that the second communication channel is available foruse by the transmitting node, wherein the received indication indicatesthat the secondary communication channel is reserved for the use by thetransmitting node, and wherein the receiving node transmits theindication based on a determination by performing a listen-before-talk(LBT) operation, at a time just before a subframe boundary on the firstcommunication channel, whether the second communication channel isavailable for the use by the transmitting node; and in response toreceiving the indication, transmitting the data from the transmittingnode to the receiving node over the second communication channel. 16.The method of claim 15, wherein receiving the indication from thereceiving node that the second communication channel is available forthe use by the transmitting node comprises receiving aclear-to-send-to-self message from the receiving node over the secondcommunication channel.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein receiving theindication from the receiving node that the second communication channelis available for use by the transmitting node comprises receiving anOK-to-send message from the receiving node over the first communicationchannel.
 18. The method of claim 15, further comprising: aftertransmitting the data from the transmitting node, receiving anacknowledgement message from the receiving node over the firstcommunication channel.
 19. The method of claim 15, wherein the firstcommunication channel comprises licensed radio resources, and the secondcommunication channel comprises unlicensed radio resources.
 20. Themethod of claim 15, wherein the transmitting node comprises an eNodeB(eNB) and the receiving node comprises a user equipment (UE).
 21. Themethod of claim 15, wherein the transmitting node comprises a userequipment (UE) and the receiving node comprises an eNodeB (eNB).
 22. Anetwork node configured to perform the method of claim
 15. 23. A node,comprising: a processor circuit; a transceiver coupled to the processorcircuit; and a memory circuit comprising computer readable program codethat is configured to cause the processor circuit to execute theoperations of: transmitting, from the node, a request-to-send message toa receiving node over a first communication channel, the request-to-sendmessage indicating that the node has data to be transmitted to thereceiving node over a second communication channel; receiving anindication from the receiving node that the second communication channelis available for use by the node in response to the transmittedrequest-to-send message, wherein the received indication indicates thatthe secondary communication channel is reserved for the use by the node,and wherein the receiving node transmits the indication based on adetermination by performing a listen-before-talk (LBT) operation, at atime just before a subframe boundary on the first communication channel,whether the second communication channel is available for the use by thenode; and in response to receiving the indication, transmitting the datafrom the node to the receiving node over the second communicationchannel.